President's Message Holiday Luncheon Member Survey Facebook

A monthly publication of AAUW, San Francisco, est. in 1886 www.aauwsf.org December 2012

President’s Message

The San Francisco Branch of AAUW has a long and proud tradition of working for the empowerment of women and girls in the city. One of our goals this year is to continue this work with like organizations and connect in productive ways to move our missions forward. Recently, Deirdre Araujo, past President, represented our Branch on a panel that included SAGE, Alliance for Girls and the Family Services Agency to learn how to identify and support girls at risk of or involved in sexual exploitation. You can learn more about the Alliance for Girls organization by visiting their website: Holiday Luncheon http://www.alliance4girls.org/about-us/ Sunday, December 16, 2012, 11:00 am Mescolanza Restaurant, 2221 Clement Street.

You should have received your invitation in the mail with details regarding menu choices. RSVP with check to AAUW-SF and entree choice to Nancy Shapiro 1683 42nd Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94122 or call 415-731-2654. As 2012 winds down, we look forward to our

Annual Holiday Luncheon, which will be held on

December 16th at Mescolanza Restaurant. Hope to see you there. Member Survey Thank you to everyone who responded to the ‘Tis the season of giving thanks and thinking about Branch email survey. Your feedback will help us to friends and family who help us in life, through the grow as a branch and plan future programming. good times and the tough times. I want to take a Congratulations to Aysha Handley who has won a moment to thank my fellow AAUWSF board free membership for a friend to AAUW! members who volunteer their time for this great organization to ensure that it has a strong and vital future. I have learned much from board members over the years and I continue to tap into their vast Facebook knowledge and expertise as I settle into my role as Did you know the San Francisco Branch has a President. Thank you current and past board Facebook page? If you are a Facebook user, visit members, I appreciate everything that you do. our page, check out the regular postings of articles of interest and of course Like us! Happy Holidays everyone! http://www.facebook.com/pages/AAUW-San- Francisco/118625798168?v=wall&ref=nf Cathy Corcoran President AVANTI www.aauwsf.org December2012 Before the Bridge: Sight and Sound at the Golden Gate Board Meeting The final meeting of 2012 will be held on Wednesday, December 12th, 6:30 p.m., for potluck, with meeting at 7 p.m, at Marilyn's Leal's home, 4325 19th Street. All members are invited. RSVP Marilyn at 626-4110.

International Book Group

There is no meeting scheduled for December. The next meeting will be held on January 21, 2013.

103 Montgomery Street, next to the Main Parade Afternoon With Books Ground at the Presidio

Friday, December 21, 1:30-3PM The newly rehabilitated Montgomery Street Hostess: Michelle Mammini, 2520 Greenwich St Barracks is the setting for a sensory experience of Book/Author: The Language of Flowers, the Golden Gate Strait. Come experience images by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and sounds of this area before the iconic bridge was RSVP: Michelle @ 346-9114 imagined. This exhibit surveys the dramatic geology, dangerous waters, ships, shipwrecks, lighthouses, art, and poetry related to the Golden Mystery/Adventure Gate Strait. It also explores the military installations that guarded it and are now part of the Golden Gate Thursday, December 20th (3rd Thurs) @ 6:30 National Recreation Area. Rarely seen images, PM maps, and paintings are complemented by sounds of Hostess: Andrea Laudate, 243 Missouri St. the ocean, foghorns, and sailors. Book/Author: Lost and Fondue, by Avery Aames Reviewer: Everyone Gallery I traces the history of the magnificent RSVP: Andrea @ 864-6789 Golden Gate Strait with tales of ships, lighthouses, foghorns, and shipwrecks. Gallery II explores two centuries of harbor defense, the impact of the Golden Gate Bridge on the Presidio, and the earliest Travel Group vision of a national park at the Gate. Visitors can also complete an interactive scavenger hunt and The Travel Group will be meeting at 11 AM on attend evening programs that complement the Saturday, December 15 to see this exhibit. exhibit.

Please RSVP to: [email protected] Download the Exhibit Manual, written by Curator or [email protected] so we will be able Dr. Randolph Delehanty. To see selected video to look for you when you arrive. clips featured in the exhibit, visit the exhibit page.

Elaine Butler and Adrienne Kristine

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Avanti Articles Tenderloin Tessie Please remember to submit Avanti articles to Pat Camarena Corrine Sacks by the 25th of each month via email to: [email protected]

Amply built blonde Tessie was the most renowned and classy of the upper Tenderloin bordello proprietors before the San Francisco Get the Avanti Faster earthquake. Back in the early 20th century, San If you’d like to receive the Avanti via Francisco was a place where women of opportunity email notice rather than US mail, could find immense financial freedom and wealth please tell thePlaying Membership Now VP, and then a printed copy will not be sent to catering to the desires of a diverse male population. Paula Campbell It was a different story for the oppressed female you. If you prefer, we will continue to print and mail the Avanti to you. population in the Barbary Coast area. An Irish Catholic born south of Market, Tessie operated an upscale three storied lavishly furnished house at 377 O'Farrell Street into the 1920s. A friend of the Playing Now mayor and a financial supporter of the police Paula Campbell department, buying hundreds of tickets to the annual policeman's ball, for more than a decade, Tessie was named the unofficial queen of the All Hail to the King – The Lion King that is, back Policeman's Ball. She led the Grand March each in San Francisco for a stunning run at the Orpheum year dancing the first dance with the mayor...Sunny theatre. This gorgeous treat for the eyes and ears Jim Rolph. A friend of the mayor and a financial has returned in all its glory. Julie Taymor’s supporter of the police, Tessie was named the astounding sets and costumes, combined with music unofficial queen of the Police Men's Ball. She was and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice make for a secretly married to a state political boss who quietly magical night of theatre. ran a number of pool halls and gambling dens. After a wildly pubic divorce trial she shot him after The curtain goes up on the African savannah, the encountering him with a lady on a public street. He sun rises slowly upstage (what a sight to see) and refused to press charges so Tessie was released. the griot/narrator Rafiki, the only human, non- After 1917, most of the brothels were shut down animal character, sung, chanted, and danced by after a wave of reform. Tessie retired taking with Buyi Zama of Durban, South Africa, enters as a her her enormous antique Napolean bed. She had parade of animals dance down the aisles from the used her wealth to purchase antiques many from the back of the theatre and take their places on the Spreckel's estate. Tessie's three story townhouse at stage. The show’s identifying theme song, The 535 Powell Street stands today as the last building Circle of Life, fills the theatre – and the show near Union Square that began life as mansion. comes to heartwarming, riotous, colorful life. Worn but ornate, it currently houses an art gallery. A few years ago, their annual fundraiser celebrated The cast is young and enthusiastic, the dancing the life and times of Tessie...Teresa Susan Donahue energetic and forceful. But what makes the show Wall. outstanding are the costumes. Each lead animal has www.rootsweb.com its own mask and headpiece, bringing each to life as www.runningwithlonglegs.blogspot.com an individual character. Other animals have www.trivia-library.com attached limbs, jointed legs, and heads that move realistically as the actor’s head moves. I was especially taken with the jaguar, whose head, several inches in front of the actor’s head, was 3 AVANTI www.aauwsf.org December2012

attached to the actor’s by cords in such a way that it moved exactly as the actor’s head moved – cocked December Birthdays head, chin up, side to side, actually looking over its shoulder, and so on. Other incredible effects are the wheel machines of leaping gazelles, the flying Rene Golanty-Koel December 8 birds, the overwhelming stampede of the Annie Bailey December 15 wildebeests, and many more. Angie Durso December 23

The show is famous for Taymor’s use of puppetry as well as her use of masks. Many of the animals Birthday Not Announced? are puppets – all sorts of puppets -- from East Asian shadow puppets to the realistic three quarter life If your birthday is not there and you’d like to size ones of Japan’s Bunraku. What stuns me is the have it included (or corrected), contact the realism of it all. The African savannah is alive with Membership VP. overwhelming sounds and sights. Even the grass grows before our very eyes. The simple, rather corny plot of the boy Prince, deceived by his evil uncle and forced to leave the Pride, only to return Public Policy Notes years later and find it wrecked, the members starving and under attack, and who then resumes his rightful place and becomes the King, is saved from SF Commission on the Status of Women being utter treacle by the fabulous music and Instead of its regular November meeting the talented actors, and by the use of two characters Commission held a planning retreat (which I was who provide comic relief, the meerkat Timon (Nick not able to attend). I’ll write up the highlights when Cordileone) and warthog Pumbaa (Ben Lipitz) both they issue the minutes. broadly played in the style of stage Jewish comedians. Ya gotta see it to believe it! Women’s Conference Steering Committee (formerly 5th World Conference on I’ve seen the show three times now, once on Women/5WCW) Broadway, once with the first touring company here The outcome of meetings in October that committee in SF, and now with this company. It’s still an leaders had with influential leaders to the UN, was absolute delight. Audiences apparently agree as that there will not be a 5th World Conference on The Lion King is Broadway’s highest grossing Women (the previous conference was in Beijing in show ever, recently overtaking the ever popular 1995). Phantom of the Opera. It’s a great show, and a visual spectacle unlikely to be duplicated. Julie The San Francisco 5WCW steering committee has Taymor’s genius makes The Lion King a once in a an interim name: Women’s Conference Steering lifetime experience that no theatregoer should miss. Committee. The label is temporary, because we’re discussing whether there could or should be a The Lion King, through Jan 13. women’s conference in the U.S. We’re individually Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market Street, drafting our vision for what needs to come next, Tues–Sat 8pm, Wed, Sat, Sun 2pm. Online box: with goals and outcomes. This is, in effect, a http://www.lionking.com/ticket/san-francisco-ca complete reboot and recalibration. If you have phone: 888-746-1799, or at the theatre Tues--Sat ideas, please contact me directly, noon–8:30, Sun. noon–3. [email protected]

Stay informed! To stay abreast of meetings around women’s, girls’ 4 AVANTI www.aauwsf.org December2012 and families issues, and for reports from the Department on the Status of Women: sign up at *************************************** http://bit.ly/YfmkYf (or San Francisco Department 2012-13 Tech Trek Donation Form on the Status of Women, www.sfgov.org/dosw). I’m interested in sponsoring girls to go to Tech Trek Upcoming Meetings 2012! I pledge the following amount towards SF Commission on the Status of Women meets sending girls to camp. jointly with the Police Commission Wednesday, December 5 $25 $50 $100 $900 (1 girl) $_____ 5-7pm City Hall, Room 408 Make checks payable to AAUW-CA SPF, with

Tech Trek SF in the memo line. Women’s Conference Steering Committee Wednesday, December 12 Name:______3-5pm 25 Van Ness, Suite 240 Address: ______

Roberta Guise ______Co-chair, AAUW-SF Public Policy Committee

Phone:______Email:______

Mail your donation addressed to: Tech Trek Report Elaine Butler & Michelle Mammini 124 Amber Dr.,

SF , CA 94131-1626; The new Tech Trek year has started with active fundraising. We have the money to send 4 and one [email protected] half girls already committed. We are again asking for 15 spots. The money does not need to be sent until March 1, 2013. Think about making a pledge and or joining the Tech Trek Committee. Michelle Membership Updates and Elaine will be happy to tell you about the duties If you change your address, kindly notify the of the Committee. We wish to thank our donors as Membership Chair. of 11/30/2012. Donors for 2013 Joanne Mandel Connie Armitage SAFE MEDICINE DISPOSAL Mary Graves Margaret Kavounas (Peggy) Please dispose of your expired or unwanted Stephanie Pincson medicines at a safe drop-off site. Mary Suter Kathryn Traynor Do not thrown medications in the trash or flush Sandra Tye down the drain. When medications enter our waterways they contaminate water sources and Thank you for your generous donations! Happy harm wildlife. Holidays to everyone in the SF Branch. San Francisco residents can dispose of expired or Michelle Mammini and Elaine Butler, Tech Trek unwanted medicines by dropping off at any San San Francisco Branch Co-coordinators. Francisco police station. Just hand the medicines to

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of 12-15 girls, completed their workshops on the officer on duty at the station. building self esteem and media literacy during September-November. As part of the program, they If you live outside of San Francisco, enter your zip are responsible for an activity where they have to code in this search tool to find a drop off complete an action. The girls decided to do a Make- site near you: Up Free Day during lunch time when they talk to nodrugsdownthedrain.org/NoDrugs/ other students about beauty based on inner beauty,

not exterior make-up.

State Directory The girls took a bold step speaking up in front of their peers, holding signs, speaking to other students AAUW CA Directory is posted in searchable PDF about their project, and recruiting others to hold format. Both documents can be found in the Forms signs that read “Celebrate the Real You. Go Make- & Documents section, under Branch up Free!” “Don’t Fall for Media Lies,” You are Administration, HERE. Hard copies of the beautiful just the way you are. Go Make-up Free.” directory are available for purchase. Send your “Make-up Free Day. Show your natural beauty.” request, with a $10 check to AAUW CA Office, When asked what the project has done for them, 1331 Garden Hwy, Suite 100, Sacramento, CA several responded, “it helped me feel proud of who 95833. I am,” “it helped me see beauty from the inside out,” and “it helped me understand media messages differently.” Online AAUW Branch There is an online AAUW California Branch at The culminating activity this semester will be an www.AAUWCaOnline.org. Their dues are $10 if action activity in the larger community. The exact you’re already a member. location, date and nature of this action is still being planned by the participants. They will also be AAUW Web Pages planning the presentation for Presidion Middle News Page & Media Alerts: (use links on page to School 8th graders in Spring Semester 2013. subscribe) www.aauw.org/ About/newsroom/news/index.cfm Actions to take: www.aauw.org/ issue_advocacy/actionpages/index.cfm Mission in Action: www.aauw.org/ publications/mission/index.cfm Two Minute Activities: capwiz.com/aauw/home. US Congressional Voting Record aauwaction.org/VoterEd/CVR.htm

About-Face/AAUWSF /SFUSD Media Literacy Project

On Monday, November 19, 2012, Jennifer Berger, Executive Director of About-Face, and Susan Kwock, AAUWSF representative, attended an Action Event by the participants of our media literacy project at George Washington High School (GWHS) in San Francisco. The group, comprised

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Membership Nancy Shapiro AAUWSF Board [email protected] Website President 415) 731-2654 Nancy Shapiro Cathy Corcoron Secretary [email protected] [email protected] Kelly Joseph 415) 731-2654 415) 341-0206 [email protected] Silver Jubilee Fund Chair Legal Advocacy VP Treasurer/Finance Pat Camarena Barbara Spencer Kathe Traynor [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 415) 285-7589 415) 221-6690 415) 665-3212 Tech Trek Education Fund VP Avanti Editor Elaine Butler Mary Suter Corrine Sacks [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 415) 826-3172 415) 665-1185 415)292-4130 Michelle Mammini Co-Program VP’s Co-Public Policy 415)346-9114 Andrea Laudate Sheila Bost [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Hospitality 415) 864-6789 415)664-4985 Marilyn Leal Peggy Kavounas 415) 626-4110 [email protected] [email protected] Roberta Guise (415) 420-6276 [email protected] Membership VP Nancy Shapiro [email protected] 415) 731 - 2654

December 2012

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat 1

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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Travel Group 11 AM 16 Holiday 17 18 19 20 Mystery/ 21 Afternoon 22 Luncheon Adventure With Books 11 AM 6:30 PM 1:30 PM

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I never think of the future – it comes soon enough. Albert Einstein 7 AVANTI www.aauwsf.org December2012

Avanti Editor AAUW San Francisco Branch P.O. Box 31405 San Francisco, CA 94131-0405 Address Correction Requested The American Association of University Women (AAUW), founded in 1881, is the nation’s leading organization advocating equity for women and girls. Its national membership of 100,000 seeks to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. People of every race, creed, age, sexual orientation, national origin, and level of physical ability are invited to join. AAUW California was launched in San Francisco in 1886 and began lobbying immediately. It remains the state’s most active and diverse organization for women with 14,000 members in more than 150 branches, plus 6,000 members-at-large.

AAUW advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, philanthropy, education, and research

Marie Curie & AAUW Educational Foundation Legal Advocacy Fund The year was 1919. Europe had been In 1873, a prominent Boston physician, Founded in 1981, the Legal Advocacy ravaged by World War I and radium was Dr. E.H. Clarke, wrote a book arguing Fund (LAF) works to achieve equity for far too expensive for a scientist of that too much study would give women women in higher education by recog- modest means to afford for experiments. brain fever and render their children nizing indicative efforts to improve the This was true even forone as famous as sickly, if they were to have them at all. climate for women on campus; by Madame Marie Curie. As a result, her offering assistance to women faculty, groundbreaking research had reached a The Association of Collegiate Alumnae staff, and students who have grievances virtual standstill. Then the AAUW came (AAUW’s chief predecessor) fought this against colleges and universities; and by to the rescue. Members from Maine to contention in 1885 and won, by gath- supporting sex discrimination lawsuits. California helped raise an astonishing ering data from its members to show that The LAF Board only approves support $156,413, enabling Madame Curie to they had suffered no ill health from their of cases which are currently involved in purchase one gram of radium and college and postgraduate education. In litigation, and that have the potential to continue her experiments that helped her 1888, the Western Association of set legal precedent. create the field of nuclear chemistry and Collegiate Alumnae (founded here in forever change the course of science. San Francisco) made educational history The Legal Advocacy Fund’s annual Madame Curie received the Nobel Prize by establishing the first graduate fellow- Progress in Equity Award recognizes for her work, but was not admitted to the ship for women (given to Vassar indicative and replicable college and French Academie des Sciences until she graduate Ida Street). university programs. won an incredible second Nobel California is still the largest contributor, Prize...all because she was a woman. enabling the Educational Foundation to More than 75 years later, there are still award nearly $3 million in grants to only three women members. women at the dissertation or doctoral level, and to those pursuing career- related or community-based projects.